The editors are pleased to announce that judge Ladee Hubbard has chosen Rebecca Timson’s story, “Arbor Day,” for this year’s Dogwood Literary Award in Fiction. Ms. Timson will receive $1,000 and her story will be published in Dogwood’s 2020 edition. Finalists for the award were Jennifer Lee and Hillary Moses Mohaupt, whose work will also appear in Dogwood 2020, due out in late May.
In her citation choosing Timson’s story, Judge Ladee Hubbard wrote, “An intriguing and finely composed story, ‘Arbor Day’ begins when a tree from one couple’s driveway falls onto a car parked in their neighbors’ driveway. In presenting each character’s reaction to the incident, the author reveals the interplay of fear and desire that informs their perceptions of each other—and the extent to which these perceptions are shaped by how they see themselves….I was impressed by the vividness of the author’s explorations of character, the conceptual complexity of the writing and it’s structure.”
Rebecca Timson has written extensively as a playwright, investigative journalist, educator, and scientist. She is emerging as a writer of fiction and poetry, with publication in several literary journals. She has received Fulbright, NEH, and other fellowships for writing and research residencies in Japan, India, South Korea, China, Thailand, Turkey, Morocco, Kenya, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
Judge Ladee Hubbard is the author of the novel The Talented Ribkins which received the Ernest J. Gaines Award, the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction and was a Kirkus Review best book of 2017 in two categories. Her short fiction has been widely published. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and has received additional fellowships and grants from The Sustainable Arts Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers Conference, and Tulane University’s Center for the Study of the Gulf South, among other organizations. Her second novel, The Rib King, is forthcoming from HarperCollins.
The editors thank the hundreds of writers who entered the contest, and encourage all writers to consider entering again in the late summer, when submissions reopen. Familiarize yourself with a back issue of the magazine or subscribe by clicking on the “buy” tab in the menu above.
Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose 